Dr. Yvonne Crotty

Dr. Yvonne Crotty is an Associate Professor in the School of STEM Education, Innovation and Global Studies at Dublin City University and is Co-Director of the International Centre for Innovation and Workplace Learning. Previously she taught at post-primary level education for 15 years. Her subjects include Music and Performing Arts, RE, Art, English, SPHE and Spanish. She has also worked in industry and training. At postgraduate level she is chair of the Masters in Education and Training Management (eLearning) programme and supervises Masters and PhD students who are interested in researching and creating multimedia artefacts and online resources for use in the workplace. At undergraduate level, she coordinates and teaches on the Teaching Methodologies module for Initial Teacher Educator in Science, Maths, PE and Biology and act as Teaching Practice supervisor. Yvonne is passionate about teaching and learning and has been nominated for DCU's President's Award for Teaching and Learning Excellence each year since 2009. She was overall Academic winner of the Excellence in Teaching Award in 2011 - www.dcu.ie/news/2011/may/s0511k.shtml and Finalist in the Jennifer Burke Award in 2009 - http://jenniferburkeaward.ie/finalists2009.html Yvonne was nominated for the European Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2017.

Research Interests

Yvonne is particularly interested in promoting innovation, creativity and visual literacy in higher education as evident in her work as director of the research group Video LinkEd. With her vast experience in the music industry she has a special research interest in marrying the head and the heart in the academy to effect a much needed creative approach to education. She has worked at an international level in spearheading collaboration between DCU and the Global eSchools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI) in the development of the Graduate Diploma in Leadership Development in ICT and the Knowledge Society programme for African Leaders. Yvonne has carried out research and developed learning resources for the Cancer Awareness Programme which is being used in the SPHE Senior Cycle curriculum. She was the National Coordinator for the EU Competitiveness and Innovation project Inspiring Science Education (ISE) which involved the design and development of eLearning resources to make science education more imaginative for students.Yvonne was also involved in the Erasmus+ Play4Guidance project which aims to develop an entrepreneurial mindset in students through the use of innovative learning approaches and worked in collaboration with the School of Law and Government on the EU SUPRALAT which focused on practice oriented education.

Currently Yvonne is involved in the following Erasmus+ projects: KLabs4Kids, Eduhack and FRONTIERS Science which run until early 2022. These project involves collaboration with a number of partners across Europe.

Teaching Interests

Yvonne focuses on the values of passion, creativity,care and excellence in her teaching. Her teaching intention at both undergraduate and postgraduate level is that students have an enjoyable and meaningful learning experience. Yvonne believes that fun is an integral part of learning and she derives great satisfaction when she sees people connecting with their own passion. In her experience, creating an enjoyable experience where students are in their ‘flow’ or ‘element’ helps to improve learning, develops collegial relationships, increases self-esteem and improves productivity. The group dynamic generated through an engaged collaborative learning approach allows the students to participate fully in the learning process.

As an educator, Yvonne feels the traditional forms of assessment stifle real reflection, innovation and creativity. An assessment for learning (AfL) approach allows her to give feedback to students to help improve their learning. By incorporating a more formative approach, she believes that more interaction is fostered thus benefiting student engagement and learning.

Yvonne makes extensive of multimedia in my teaching and emphasises the importance of having a vision for technology rather than focusing on technical skills alone. She support students to experiment with different forms of multi-media as they create multimedia artefacts and bring new ideas into life. Yvonne has developed an educational entrepreneurial approach to research, which facilitates students to move beyond text-based accounts to include multimedia forms of representation that involves the demonstration of scholarly work using different forms of media.